Student Literacy Levels

During this semester, I have been surprised by the literacy levels of my students. 
They are able to read and analyze text and perform assignments that involve those interpretations. One of the examples that I can provide is a Socratic seminar I had the students participate in. My students were given articles on Women in Islam and they were to read these articles and participate in an open discussion in a Socratic seminar. My students responded with great participation and really did there best to understand the role that women played in Islamic society. 
My students are not able to use their literacy skills to put together a proper AXES paragraph with 100% structure. My students seem to struggle with the fact that they cant provide good enough eXamples or Explanations of their writing assignments after they have read passages on the AXES topics. I hope that my students will be at a greater level next semester and that they stick with trying to conquer the AXES paragraphs.


September 30, 2013

My Rich Literacy classroom will look like it has word walls with important information for my students, as well as historical texts with multiple reading levels on the shelves ready for student use. My classroom will also have novels and historical biographies at various reading levels for students to use if they need to research someone or some kind of event. My students are engaged in learning about Ancient India (for world history) or the Early settlers to the America's (U.S. History). They will be studying such people as Columbus, the Aztec's,  Cortez, the Inca's, the Pilgrims, Hinduism, Vishnu, and monotheism. My students will be reading biographies on Columbus, Montezuma, Cortez, and The Truthful History of the Conquest of New Spain.

December 15th 2013 
 
My literacy classroom looks like students have put more words on the word wall, and replaced the words from September. My students will be working on the Mongols and Barbarians They will be reading books and biographies on gangus khan. If my students are in US History they will be working on the industrial revolution My students will be reading  The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

May 30th 2013

My literacy classroom looks like my students are getting ready for finals week, their word wall in overflowing with all of the words we have been studying for the semester, and we are getting ready for the final by reviewing key words and phrases we learned throughout the semester. My students will be engaged in learing about the Rwandan, Darfur, and Yugoslavia genocides in 1994. My students will be engaged in reading such as  Shake Hands with the Devil, and Left to tell. They are capable of independent learning with AXES paragraphs as we have been practicing all year long. My students will be at the level where they can successfully create an AXES paragraph as well as write an essay, and answer a Document Based Question (DBQ) Essay. hopefully my students have made the decision to move on to AP or College Preparation courses and to continue to work hard at all of their subjects.